South Africa’s radioisotopes company shines globally

South African nuclear company NTP Radioisotopes (NTP), a subsidiary of the State-owned South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (better known as Necsa), has increased its production of, and its share in the global market for, the Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) radioisotope, the company announced on Thursday. This followed the withdrawal from the market by Canada’s NRU reactor last year. “We have managed to grow our market share for Mo-99 through continued investment in our production, and by working with our partners to cover the supply gap,” reported NTP Group Executive Finance: Precious Hawadi. NTP’s revenues for the 2015/2016 financial year came to more than R1.2-billion, of which almost R1-billion came from radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals. The global market for nuclear medicine was estimated at more than $11-billion last year and is expected to reach almost $20-billion in 2021. NTP has also highlighted that its MD, Tina Eboka, was last month re-elected as Vice-Chairperson of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency’s (NEA’s) High-Level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR). The re-election occurred during the bi-annual meeting of the group in Paris.